Bursa Malaysia is expected to strengthen this week, driven by stronger ringgit and commodity prices, as well as rising forex reserves and higher national fourth quarter economic growth.

Phillip Capital Management Senior Vice-President (Investment) Datuk Dr Nazri Khan Adam Khan said more upside is expected on the local stock market amid uncertainty over the outcome of the US-China trade negotiations.

“Despite global geopolitical concerns, the local market continues its near two-month upside movement above the 1,700-pt critical support mark,” he told Bernama.

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He said another factor that would contribute to the market movement this week would be the release of economic data from Singapore, China, Japan and Taiwan.

Nazri Khan said the market would also be influenced by the outcome of the US-China trade talks.

“The talks between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer were the reason behind risk-averse attitude among investors,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth would also be one of the important catalysts as it improved above expectations, buoyed by a rebound in mining and quarrying, coupled with higher growth from the services and manufacturing sectors, albeit at a slower pace.

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“Malaysia’s GDP grew 4.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2018 compared with 4.4 per cent in the previous quarter, slightly above our in-house and market expectations of 4.5 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively,” he said. On the technical side, he said a further rise above 1,700 points in the FBM KLCI would indicate a bullish market sentiment.

“Having said that, we expect FBM KLCI to find its footing and enter into a short-term bullish movement,” he said.

For the week just ended, the local stock market was benign with investors mostly adopting a wait-and-see approach amid cautious sentiment over the US-China trade talks that began on Thursday. – Bernama